Last Long Run and Chlorine

I did my last loooong run before the marathon today in rather frosty conditions, but am happy that I got it done, because with the weather here, you never know what's coming next and it could always be worse! I didn't think it would be as freezing as it was, but thanks to some fierce winds the real feel air temp was hovering right around 10 degrees. My gloves stayed on the whole time. I divided my run into three parts: run the first 80 mins by myself around my neighborhoods, then meet up with Brandon at his house and run for an hour from there with him (which ended up being the creek path) and then run back to my house and add on if needed.

The hour with Brandon was pretty easy so that I had enough left in the tank to pick it up a bit on the way home, despite nearly freezing my face off. All the ponds and lakes are frozen; people are using them to play ice hockey on (hopefully the ice is thick enough for that) and even my gel I brought along felt like I took it straight out of a freezer when I opened it. But hey, what doesn't kill you, will only make you stronger.

I finished the 3-hr run on a high note and then cooled the legs off in the pool for 30 mins, realizing once again that swimming is my least favorite of the three sports. I mean come on, what is enjoyable about forcing yourself out in temps hovering around 0, while your bathing suit is hardening up from the water (joking) freezing on it, and doing it all in complete darkness with the entire pool to just yourself. My thoughts seem to wander when I do these swims, and I usually end up getting some dumb song stuck in my head, repeating it over and over again, even though I can't stand it.

While we certainly have gotten our share of the frigid, nasty weather lately, the Pacific Northwest seems to have been hit a little harder, whilst less prepared. Apparently, most roads are iced over like skating rinks, with only major highways cleared and accidents just waiting to happen. My family is flying to Germany for the holidays tomorrow and left their house today to be able to make their flight out of SeaTac tomorrow. Hopefully it all goes without incident.

If you're a member of a health club with a locker room, you will probably know what I am talking about when I say locker room gossip. And I mean the kind women talk about. Lets just say that you hear the MOST interesting things come out of people's mouths, it almost feels like confession in there sometimes. Today I "accidentally" (it was loud enough for all to hear) eavesdropped on a woman complaining about the fact that she won't swim because of the chlorine in the pool and of how dry her skin gets afterwards. Ok lady, two things: sorry but you need chlorine in a public pool, otherwise you will not leave healthy after swimming, and second, there is lotion for that dry skin. It's funny how triathletes (and swimmers I guess) actually talk about how much they love the smell of chlorine on theirs and other bodies; and I must confess, smelling of chlorine after a swim is somewhat satisfying, almost like a deep cleanse, or a mark of achievement. I guess this comes to show just how freaky we ueber- endurance athletes appear to the general population.